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| One of the Apollo flight simulators. |
Or rather, which came first, the flight or the flight simulator?
“A flight simulator helps in artificially recreating the aircraft flight environment for pilot training, design or other purposes.The main purpose of a flight simulator is to help the pilot to achieve, test and maintain proficiency in handling airplane operation without involving any risk to property or lives, and at a much lower cost than training in the air. A simple flight simulator system consists of multiple displays, control devices, an audio system for communications and a computer system to process control inputs and record flight data.”
Techopedia
“In the late 1960s our simulation technology had progressed to the point where it became virtually impossible to separate the training from the actual missions.”
Gene Krantz, Failure Is Not An Option, p. 234
As my grandmother used to ask me as a boy, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” I pondered the question and never had an answer. It is a paradox. You cannot have one without the other. But what is the starting point? Take your pick—God's created it or evolutionary biology did.
The same applies to NASA’s simulator technology that was developed for the moon missions. As Gene Krantz noted above, the simulators hosted simulations that were as real as the real thing. So how do you develop a flight simulator that is authentic, to land a manned spacecraft on the moon, when this has never been done before? The engineers did benefit from data gathered from the Surveyor program’s robotic probes, and data acquired from observation and experiments. But by 1965, 3 landers out of 9 succeeded in missions to the moon. Where did this database of knowledge, coupled with actual experience come from? How did they increase the simulator accuracy to resemble an actual landing without doing the landing first?
Generally, engineering requires the building of prototypes with test flights in real world conditions, or in this case, real moon conditions. In commercial or military aviation development, the aircraft and the simulation are both built in tandem. The simulator will be the training platform for pilots and the test pilot’s flights of the prototype will be gathering data to input into the simulator. Both systems rise together.
Simulator Construction Began Early On
Apollo command service module (CSM) simulator construction began in the early 1960’s by contractor North American. Construction was to be completed early 1964. In 1963 they were awarded the contract to begin construction on the Lunar landing module (LM) simulator. This was long before the Apollo spacecraft had been launched or tested in real space and real moon conditions. It should also be acknowledged that at this time, between 1960-1963, only 5 unmanned spacecraft had been sent to the moon and none were successful.
Around this time, Grumman signed the contract to build the Apollo spacecraft in November of 1962. Construction started in January of 1963. There would be a need for networking between these two technologies—one from the simulator side and the other from the hardware side. From 1961 to 1967 the Mercury and Gemini programs were ongoing. It gave the appearance of gradual steps learning how to travel successfully to the moon. But apparently, the technology was already there to do so. But how? It seems in retrospect that the Mercury and Gemini programs were meant to keep the public engaged with the moon landing project. Some of their missions could be gleamed
Where then, is the database of knowledge coming from? Not only for the flight simulations but for the spacecraft also. A secret space program? These machines are built with a purpose in mind so the engineers would need a full understanding of the technology required and conditions in deep space such as astrophysics, temperatures, radiation, navigation, launch weight, fuel consumption, etc.—besides what it is like to fly a spacecraft from microgravity to 1/6 gravity in a vacuum for a successful moon landing.
Apollo Simulation Platforms
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| Apollo Experience Report: Simulation Of Manned Space Flight For Crew Training |
As can be seen in this 1973 NASA report the simulators used, there were a total of 11. All had banks of computers to control every aspect of a mission. Other simulators included aspects such as simulated 1/6 gravity, docking simulation, centrifuge for high G forces, etc. The report states Apollo astronauts spent as much as 80% of their training time in these simulators. And for spacecraft that, under the official NASA narrative, had never been flown in the conditions or places where they were intended for.
How did they know this was going to be successful?
In Neil Armstrong’s authorized biography, The First Man, Armstrong was instrumental in developing the simulators. As stated in the book, Armstrong’s method was to “mechanize the equations of motion.” Where are the equations coming from since nobody had flown the LM on the moon? The reader is never told. Therein lies the issue—too much data coming from too few sources and never properly explained.
Armstrong reportedly crashed landing attempts over 3,000 times in the LM simulator. If that simulator is not as accurate as a real flight experience, then Armstrong would be simulating crashing without fully knowing the correct flight characteristics and data to prevent a crash in a live moon landing. But the LM had never landed on the moon. So how did they get the actual flight and landing experience data from? These NASA rocket guys come off as daredevils! They are not adhering to standard procedures of safety or other basic engineering standards. You always test the prototypes first. Even smart people don’t know it all.
It is doubtful they could have done this from running simulations from what is known, because not all was known at the time.
Concluding
My conclusion to the mysteries presented here, is that the exploration of the moon had already been done. By chiefly, the Department of Defense. I judge that by circumstantial evidence of NASA and their contractors having a greater knowledge of technological requirements and space flight characteristics than they should have had at the time since much of the hardware was untested. And keep in mind, all of the astronauts from Mercury, Gemini to Apollo were employed by the DOD. All were military men, all officer class.
As Neal Armstrong once said, “My celebrity is unwarranted.” This might be more than a humble man’s words. Maybe Armstrong was not the first man on the moon. Maybe there were other men, names concealed to this day, buried deep in the Deep State.
Endnotes
Also posted at my Substack page.
https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the?sd=pf
Sources
Apollo simulator construction timeline.
http://www.astronautix.com/c/csmsimulator.html
Apollo Experience Report: Simulation Of Manned Space Flight For Crew Training
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search?q=Apollo%20flight%20simulators
What Does Flight Simulator Mean?
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/15229/flight-simulator
